The Detailers Cafe
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kitzy on November 25, 2021, 08:46:48 AM
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What started out as an excuse to visit Cassie’s family in Phoenix who just had a baby, we decided to turn it in to a small road trip. Then we decided to plan our upcoming wedding before it and make it our honeymoon. So we started in Phoenix for the night and visited her cousin and met the new baby and then next morning departed on a two hour drive north to Sedona for two nights. From there we would continue north two hours to the Grand Canyon for a single night. Then proceed to Page, Arizona, yet another two hours before ultimately ending up in Zion National Park in Utah for three nights to finish our trip. Zion was my ultimate goal and most looked forward to location. Somewhere I’ve dreamed of going and it didn’t disappoint. Overall the trip was amazing!
So bear with me as I try to share enough pictures to get the experience across without bogging you down with too many pictures because I could easily do that. Haha
I’ll start this thread with Sedona. I was blown away when we got our first glimpse of Sedona on the drive in and it just got better. Sedona is beautiful. Like nothing I’ve personally seen before being from the east. The red rocks just jutting out from seemingly nothing was amazing.
So too early to check in we jumped on our first trail and climbed Bell Rock, checked in to the hotel and hit up Cathedral Rock for sunset. Woke up way before the sun the next morning and started the hike to devils bridge for sunrise. There’s something eerie about walking through the desert only being able to see what’s lit up by your headlamp. A quick stop to the Chapel of the Holy Cross and a drive up to a view for sunset.
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My understanding of the Grand Canyon was that I’d you weren’t doing any extreme hikes down in to the canyon, you didn’t need more than a day so we kept the visit short. I do have to say that it’s something you need to see with your own eyes. We did a short but tough section of one of the most well known trails in the park and it became a new bucket list hike. It requires a long day or an overnight though and we weren’t prepared for either. The East Kaibab trail. So we hit the first view point and came back. The way back kicked our ass and I was glad we didn’t proceed to the next viewpoint that ai thought was “only” another mile.
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Page, Arizona was next. We wanted to see Horseshoe Bend and Lower Antelope Canyon. Horseshoe Bend was cool to see but disappointing in that it was such an easy walk at a paid parking area that it was crowded with people that aren’t very respectful and don’t really appreciate what they’re looking at. Lower Antelope Canyon is owned by the Navajo and required a quite to see it. This was phenomenal. Our guide was awesome, our group sucked. The experience was still great though.
Funny story though. Video in the canyon is not allowed as the Navajo own he rights. Cassie is first to enter the canyon from our group while I putz behind grabbing a picture. I hear Cassie yell out of the canyon, “Mike, I got an awesome video. This is so cool!” Apparently she missed the memo 3 or 4 times before we entered. I had to hurry in and shush her and tell her no more. It was a cool video though. Haha. Excuse the posed photos. We were doing what the guide told us to do. But they do look cool.
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Zion National Park. Going to have to break this one down to a couple posts. I thought Sedona blew me away but from the moment we entered the park I was in awe. It was incredible. Like usual we arrived long before check in so we decided to rent dry gear and go hike The Narrows. I’ve wanted to do this hike for probably 20 years. It’s mostly in the river but squeezed between canyon cliffs that rise to 2000 above. We hiked 5 miles back until we got to the fork they call Wall Street and then turned around and came
back in time for check in and dinner.
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Nice!
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This was the highlight of my trip and what I was looking forward to most. Angels Landing. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I didn’t think I would be. I thought the way down was going to be terrible but it was actually easier and a lot of fun. There is GoPro video of this but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Staying in the park lodge gave us earlier access to the trail so we started before the sun came up so we wouldn’t have to share the trail. It gets insane and hanging off the side of a cliff with no safety gear while trying to pass and let others pass is not my idea of a good time. The first park shuttle arrived while we were at the top so the hike down involved taking turns with others where possible. It was a 1600’ climb to the top. The first half being switchbacks that absolutely zapped the life out of my legs.
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Angels landing continued…
After feeling zapped we decided to take the rest of the day easy and on the advice of a shuttle bus driver we ventured to the west side of the park for sunset.
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Our final day before having to drive 3 hours to catch a plane from Vegas. So that evening I got the text to check in for the morning flight only to find they bumped our flight two hours earlier. So now instead of taking off at 8:15, it was 6:15. Plus the 3 hour drive to the airport and having to return the rental car and giving ourselves plenty of time to get through security… we had to wake up at 12:30am. Fun. All in all, we racked up 32.6 miles of hiking.
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Wow, wow, wow!
What amazing scenery and area. We are trying to make a plan to get down there for a week around Rampage next summer.
Those hikes look absolutely incredible, something the wife and I would love to do, not sure the kids are old enough though.
Sure looks like you guys had a great time, well deserved and now I’m sure you’re back enjoying the pups and recovery!
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Wow, wow, wow!
What amazing scenery and area. We are trying to make a plan to get down there for a week around Rampage next summer.
Those hikes look absolutely incredible, something the wife and I would love to do, not sure the kids are old enough though.
Sure looks like you guys had a great time, well deserved and now I’m sure you’re back enjoying the pups and recovery!
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Sedona, Arizona and Zion National Park in Utah were the highlights of the trip for me. I expected that going in but was pleasantly surprised by both. They exceeded my expectations.
Angels Landing would make me nervous with kids. (Edited to add that it’s also going to be extremely difficult to do the upper chains portion of the trail starting in 2022 as it is going to a lottery system similar to Yosemite’s Half Dome and Arizona’s The Wave. Basically you pay a fee, I think $5, to be entered in to a drawing to win a permit to do the hike. Some people have paid over $300 and still haven’t be selected yet.) I think everything else we did would be dependent on the type of kid. Some are naturals and others… well just aren’t. The narrows would be something I really think a kid would enjoy. And if they’re anything like me as a kid, I loved climbing on rocks. The bigger the better. That’s never changed.
I need to do some research in to the Grand Canyon though because there is at least one hike, the East kaibab trail, I really want to go back and do the entirety but there’s another, the bright angel trail, that interests me as well.
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Zion and the Narrows would be pretty great I think. It’s just such a crazy diverse area.
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So my video finally finished last night. It took over 24 hours to upload. Part of it was the file size and part of it was our upload speeds here are pretty bad. Our options are limited in the rural area we live in. I am actually pleasantly surprised by the quality, though. I had switched over to Vimeo years back because YouTube couldn’t get their stuff together but now my Vimeo subscription doesn’t allow 4K.
Being chest mounted means some of the video going up isn’t impressive but does give a feel of what the terrain is really like. The going down part is wild in my opinion.
https://youtu.be/5bVjar-hFAo
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Looks like an incredible trip and great pictures!
Before we had kids, we did the Grand Canyon hike into the basin, spent two nights at the Phantom Ranch at the bottom and hiked back out on the fourth day. We went down the Bright Angel and came back up the South Kaibab. Experience of a lifetime. Do it if you have the chance. But you do have to make reservations a the ranch a year in advance.
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Looks like an incredible trip and great pictures!
Before we had kids, we did the Grand Canyon hike into the basin, spent two nights at the Phantom Ranch at the bottom and hiked back out on the fourth day. We went down the Bright Angel and came back up the South Kaibab. Experience of a lifetime. Do it if you have the chance. But you do have to make reservations a the ranch a year in advance.
I haven’t even started looking in to Bright Angel yet. I know of it but know nothing about it. I hadn’t really considered hiking both of them as a loop. That makes so much sense. Also takes the monotony out of out and back trails.
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I am embarrassed to say I hadn't seen this thread. OMG mike these photos a flipping amazing, going to go back through it again b.c i wanted to post first !!!
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So my video finally finished last night. It took over 24 hours to upload. Part of it was the file size and part of it was our upload speeds here are pretty bad. Our options are limited in the rural area we live in. I am actually pleasantly surprised by the quality, though. I had switched over to Vimeo years back because YouTube couldn’t get their stuff together but now my Vimeo subscription doesn’t allow 4K.
Being chest mounted means some of the video going up isn’t impressive but does give a feel of what the terrain is really like. The going down part is wild in my opinion.
https://youtu.be/5bVjar-hFAo
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holy shit, 2 min in and this is magical!!! The music is perfect
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So my video finally finished last night. It took over 24 hours to upload. Part of it was the file size and part of it was our upload speeds here are pretty bad. Our options are limited in the rural area we live in. I am actually pleasantly surprised by the quality, though. I had switched over to Vimeo years back because YouTube couldn’t get their stuff together but now my Vimeo subscription doesn’t allow 4K.
Being chest mounted means some of the video going up isn’t impressive but does give a feel of what the terrain is really like. The going down part is wild in my opinion.
https://youtu.be/5bVjar-hFAo
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holy shit, 2 min in and this is magical!!! The music is perfect
Thanks, man. At the 9:15-9:20 mark, I remember that feeling in the moment. Super freaky feeling.
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